


For the Devil to Dance Again

by enemiesloversparadise



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Criminal Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, Modern AU, Nurse Erwin Smith, Tags will make more sense as the story grows, allies might be more accurate, armin is erwins son, but what else is new, cops are corrupt, though sadly maybe a little fast on the friends, will also add tags as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:01:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28916532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enemiesloversparadise/pseuds/enemiesloversparadise
Summary: When Erwin’s son is kidnapped, he has no choice but to help suspected murderer Levi Ackerman escape the law.An au based on the movie Point Blank that wouldn’t leave my head.
Relationships: Levi/Erwin Smith
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

Levi hits the ground running. Landing too hard after having to unexpectedly leap out of a second story window dodging bullets as he goes, not the best way to make an exit.

“Tch.” 

One lucky thing that night is the lack of a fence around the house, making it easy for him to race through the well kept yard of the manor and out onto the surrounding dark streets.

One unlucky thing was the sound of a gunshot followed by the voice of a police officer and the clatter of boots hitting the ground behind him.

“He’s on the street, after him!” 

Even more unlucky is that Levi can feel the next bullet hit his side.

“Shit!” He ducks as a reflex, hoping to avoid any more bullets.

He stops a moment to look at the damage, and determines it probably just grazed him before he breaks into a sprint. At least it wasn’t one of his legs.

Shouts follow Levi as he ducks around a corner and narrowly misses a car and the angry yelling of the driver startled by the commotion.

As he runs, Levi pulls his phone from his pocket and calls the first name in his admittedly short contact list.

“I’m on Stohess street now where the hell are you!” He shouts into the phone after a quick glance at the nearest street sign while ducking to avoid a bullet.

“Levi?” A woman’s voice answers, sounding slightly panicked, “Shit you weren’t supposed to leave yet, I’m not far maybe 10 minutes.”

A gunshot lands too close for comfort as Levi replies, “Make it 5! Things didn’t exactly go as planned over here!”

He hangs up and turns another corner, sparing a glance at a cop car struggling to make the same sharp turn Levi had.

He keeps going, running hard and making as many turns as he can without circling back in an effort to lose his pursuers.

Unsure of how long he’s been running, the only tell of it being too long is the slight ache building in his legs, he debates calling Isabel again just to yell at her to drive faster, though logically knowing that would just slow her down.

A few turns later he lets out a small sigh of relief as he sees Isabel’s car turn the corner hard enough to leave skid marks and she waves at him from the driver's seat.

He looks back one last time to find the street mercifully void of any cop cars or bullets.

Holy fuck he made it.

And that is the last thought in Levi’s head when seconds away from reaching his getaway car, another car shoots out of a side street and crashes into him, sending him flying into unconsciousness.

It’s been a fairly normal morning for Erwin, he got up, made breakfast for him and his son, and was currently getting ready for work.

The only thing noteworthy being he got a call from the hospital saying his schedule had been changed slightly to check up on someone who was rammed in the side by an SUV instead of the usual runner who sprained something or a kid who skinned their knee.

“Hey dad! Come look at the news! The police chief was killed last night.” Armin calls, who was home from high school for the summer, turning his head to better carry the sound from his spot on the couch.

“That’s a news story you don’t see every day.” Erwin responds as he walks up behind the couch.

“A shocking course of events happened last night,” the news reporter starts through the tv, “Police Chief Dhalis Zachary was killed in his own home last night, reports from the scene indicate a struggle, evidence showing that more than one gun was fired. Whoever the culprit was, they seem to have made an exit through the window just behind Zachary’s desk, the city’s police are currently looking for the person responsible.”

The reporter keeps covering the events as Erwin shakes his head.

“Well, I’m off to work now, have fun well I’m gone.” 

“I will, remember to bring Macdonald’s on the way home!” Armin calls while waving his hand, not bothering to look over his shoulder this time.

Erwin chuckles as he heads out the door.

Entering the hospital and walking down the corridors is routine enough, he greets the people he usually greets, pulls out his nurse ID card for the elevator, all in all it’s smooth sailing.

When Erwin enters the hospital room his newest patient is occupying, he can’t help the pang of pity that hits him.

The man is out cold on the hospital bed, the standard issue gown doing little to hide the large amount of bruises you’d expect after being hit by a car head on at full speed, standing out even more by the contrast of his pale skin.

The gunshot wound discovered after he was admitted doesn't help his condition either.

“Well, looks like my job is going to be easy today.” Erwin says aloud as he walks to the end of the bed.

One small look over at both the man and the machines registering his vitals tell him all he needs to know about his condition, stable, but far from in good condition, it’s probably for the best he’s still unconscious, otherwise he’d be in a world of pain regardless of the painkillers.

“It looks like the car at least tried to stop before it hit you, otherwise you’d be dead.” He muses aloud.

He takes out the clipboard attached to his uniform at his hip, as well as a pen to start taking some reference notes on the man's condition to pass on to the other nurses and doctors, and to use himself later.

After writing, Erwin looks up and his attention is drawn to the tattoos going up the man’s right arm.

Starting at his wrist is the end of a sword blade meeting a rounded handle, combined, spanning nearly the full length of his forearm, attached to the handle seems to be a wire spiraling up until it disappears behind his back, the black ink matching the colour of his neatly cut hair.

A closer look reveals a twin design along his left arm, this time though, when Erwin’s eyes travel to his shoulder, he sees more than a tattoo.

In what seems like less than a few seconds, Erwin is standing up straight, mouth open to yell for help, when the person who’d been hidden in the corner of the room jumps out at him, fist already swinging.

Erwin, while not an experienced fighter by any means, is fit enough to hold his own, what he didn’t account for is his attackers speed, or how the surprise of the attack would throw him off enough for his strength to render itself useless.

Before he knows it he’s been thrown to the floor, thankfully getting his wits together enough to turn back fast enough to block a punch to his head, and manage to pull the mask of his attacker.

“Shit!” She says once the hoods off, using Erwin’s momentary confusion at her appearance to hit him hard enough to make his head spin, so much for his sudden burst of fight.

She grabs his ID card and the bag beside the patient’s bed, before racing out of the room, leaving Erwin to watch from the floor as she disappears out the window.

“What happened?” One of the security guards from the hospital says too late as the door swings open.

“What do you think.” Erwin replies under his breath as he gets up from his spot on the floor, words laced in bitterness.

At least the drive home has been nice, he even remembered to get McDonalds for Armin.

After being punched to the floor, he’d been allowed the rest of the day off, and after changing out of his work clothes, and some brief questions about the attackers appearance from a police officer named Zeke, he’d been allowed to leave.

He’d also learned, in a conversation that lasted far too long in his opinion, that the man he was looking after was the primary suspect for Zachary’s murder, and that Zeke and some other officers were coming to move him to a more secure hospital that night.

As Erwin steps out of his car and starts walking towards his house, the only thing he’s thinking is that he wants a shower and a nap, preferably in that order and soon.

“I’m home!” He calls as he kicks off his shoes, not bothering to put them away properly, getting punched in the face warrants some laziness, right?

“I brought McDonalds!” He says after a moment when Armin still doesn’t answer him.

He sets the bag of food down in the kitchen, and decides to look around when there is still no reply.

Erwin stops dead in his tracks, when in the hallway next to the living room he sees a knocked over flower pot and a cell phone on the ground.

The next thing to stop is his breath as he gasps after reading the only message on the phone.

“If you want to see your son again, call this number. And do it fast.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! If anyone's interested, I have a tumblr, insta, twitter and tik tok all under the same username, I mostly post art but feel free to ask anything about this fic if you want!
> 
> The plan is to update weekly, and I have the next few chapters done, so hopefully I can actually stick to that.


	2. Chapter 2

The only thing that stops Erwin from throwing up right then and there is nothing less than a miracle. 

He almost drops the phone he’s barely holding as he rereads, and rereads the message.

“Shit!”

He runs his hand through his hair once before finally mustering the strength to call the number.

“What do you want.” Erwin says the second the line connects, somehow managing to conjure all the skill of a professional conman to keep his voice level despite his nerves.

“For you to listen to me very carefully.” A woman's voice responds.

“Where’s my son!” 

“Hey!” She shouts back, the sound of a pounding fist on a table and Armin’s gasp shocking Erwin to stillness.

“Don’t interrupt!” She shouts into the phone, a slight shake entering her voice. “You go back to the hospital, and you get my brother out or your son dies. You talk to anyone, police, anyone! And he dies, you understand me?”

“Please just don’t hurt him-”

“Just get my brother out! Now!” 

The line goes dead before Erwin gets a chance to say anything else. Leaving him standing in a deafening silence as he stares at the phone still in his hand, somehow the only thing making this terrible situation feel real.

He walks back into the hospital only 4 and a half hours after last leaving, and he does it without any of the confidence or familiarity he had that morning, feeling like a shell compared to the man he usually is.

Passing those he’d normally greet with a warm smile with nothing more than a court nod, fearing anything else would break the stoic expression he’s put on his face like a shield.

The only thing keeping him from turning around and heading straight out the door is the heavy reminder in his pocket of why he can’t.

He feels that reminder buzz from it’s spot, and with shaky hands grabs it to check the message.

“Call me when you’ve got my brother out. Or else.”

Erwin almost walks right into a passing nurse, apologizing before shaking his head to clear it, doing nothing for the anxiety in his stomach as he reminds himself why he’s going through with this in the first place.

He finally makes it to a store room, once there getting a nurse uniform, as well as morphine, Toradol, adrenaline and a few basic first aid supplies before throwing them in a duffel bag.

Erwin hopes that will be enough, that and the key card he swiped from the front desk.

He walks into the man’s room and starts getting him ready to move when he locks eyes with a police officer.

“Aren’t you the nurse who got jumped?” The officer, a man with short black hair and a small goatee asks.

“Yeah.” Erwin replies, continuing to get him ready to move. “I need to take him down to imaging, x rays.” 

“Wherever he goes I go.”

“Then I guess you’re going to imaging too.” He says as he adds a few things to the man's bed.

The officer, Nile Dok, by his nametag, narrows his eyes. “What’s that?”

“Life support.” Erwin replies courtly.

“He wasn’t on it before.” 

“Well if anything happens to him between here and imaging it’s on me, so if it’s all the same to you I’d rather be extra careful.” Erwin explains as he loads a defibrillator onto his bed.

Nile shrugs before standing to follow Erwin out of the room.

Erwin leads, pushing the hospital bed ahead of him, towards an elevator. Thankfully not getting any suspicious glances as he goes.

When they board the elevator Erwin is relieved to see Nile pull out his phone, hopefully keeping him from noticing that Erwin’s selected the parking floor.

Erwin barely manages to keep his hands from shaking too noticeably as he watches the numbers slowly decrease in value as they move downward.

When they’re just a few floors away, as subtly and quickly as he can, he disconnects the life support with a flick from his index finger.

At the piercing noise that the life support lets out, Nile quickly looks up from his phone.

“What’s happening!”

“Life support, get me the defibrillator!” Erwin yells.

“The what?”

“The box under the bed!”

Erwin charges the defibrillator and grabs the handles, taking a deep breath to steel himself before committing to his plan in what will probably go down as the stupidest thing he’s ever done.

Erwin turns the machine on Nile, hoping he doesn’t have any pre existing heart problems, and watches him slump to the ground.

Holy shit he just assaulted a cop.

“Okay.” Erwin says as he breathes out, getting a shot of adrenaline from the bag and moving towards the man's right side.

He comes to in a jolt, piercing blue-grey eyes flying open in a panic as he gasps.

“Hey, hey, calm down, you’re in a hospital, I’m your nurse!” Erwin says, not technically a lie, as he reaches a hand out to steady him as he undoes the handcuff tying him to the bed.

The man groans and shoots a look at Erwin, but otherwise doesn’t protest as Erwin grabs another needle from the duffle bag.

“I’m giving you Toradol and morphine for the pain, seeing as no one ever said being hit by a car and shot in the same night is fun.”

He says nothing as Erwin gives him the injections, letting out a small breath as the morphine hits him.

“Alright I’m getting you out of here, but I’m going to need you to walk for me.”

“Where’s my shit.” He says, voice rough as Erwin helps him up.

“What.”

“My bag.” He grits out.

“I don’t know exactly, your sister has it.”

“My sister.” He says, gaze seeming to unfocus as he remembers something, before he grabs Erwin by the throat and slams him against the wall with more strength than should be possible.

Erwin locks eyes with the man, who’s stood and is looking up at him with a cold glare, close enough that Erwin can hear his harsh breathing from the sudden effort.

“Look, your sister took my son. I don’t want any part of this!” 

He holds his gaze for a moment, his face inches away from Erwin's, the distance mostly due to his height, and Erwin feels like his eyes are looking through his soul, almost like they’re looking for something more than Erwin knows to give.

“I don’t even know who you are okay, I just want my son back that’s all!” Erwin says, trying for more confidence than he feels.

Then with one last look, the man let’s go. 

“You’ll get your son back.” He says, voice seeming heavy.

There’s a small pause before he speaks again, so quite Erwin barely hears.

“Levi.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Levi.”

And with that, the elevator door slides open, ruining whatever small amount of peace they’d just had.

“Put some of your weight on me, my cars not far.”

Levi mumbles something under his breath before reluctantly letting Erwin support some of his weight, stopping briefly to take the gun off Nile, who stays unconscious on the floor.

And not quite sure if he should, he adds one last thing. 

“I’m Erwin.”

He’s not even sure if Levi heard him, since his only response is more silence, but he’s not repeating it now.

As they walk through the parking garage Levi speaks up.

“Give me the keys.”

“No, the only reason you’re able to walk is the morphine, and that doesn’t make for good driving-” 

As they reach Erwin’s car, Levi stands to face him.

“I’m driving, or do I have to threaten your kid to get the keys.”

“Fine, fine! Here.” Erwin says, not wanting to risk it, deciding it’d be worse to get in a car accident than to lose his son. Not a difficult decision really.

“Watch the gun.” Levi says as he moves to the driver's seat after handing the cold metal to Erwin.

“Shit.” Erwin breaths out as he climbs into the passenger seat.

Once they’re both seated, the car takes off fast enough to make Erwin reach for something to hold onto.

“We’re in a garage, slow down!”

Levi ignores him completely as he drives faster up towards the exit.

“If we crash we’re both dead, you get that?”

“And if the cops catch us we’re both arrested, you get that?” Levi responds, meeting Erwin’s gaze for a moment as he mimics his words back at him.

They race towards the exit, halting abruptly as they get to the gate.

Levi grabs the ID card before he can protest, sliding it into the awaiting machine, only to hear the tell tale beep of a rejected card.

After a few more tries Levi turns to face him with a rather pointed look.

“Janet?” He says coldly after examining the key card.

“They must have deactivated it, I used hers to get you out.” Erwin answers, a look of panic coming over his face as he realizes that must mean they’re trying to stop them from leaving. Meaning the cops are likely already involved.

“Great time to mention that.” Levi grits out, throwing the useless card out the window, no doubt realizing the same thing Erwin had.

“Stop, police!” They both wipe their heads around to the front window, to see two cops standing next to the officer Erwin had spoken to earlier, Zeke, proving their theory of the cops suspicion with the universe's signature timing.

Levi swears before stepping on the gas with all he has, prompting Erwin's eyes to go wide as he hurriedly grabs onto the handle above the window.

Zeke pulls the police out of the way just in time, making their car only barely graze one of them as they barrel by.

“You hit a cop!”

“They would have shot us!”

“You hit a cop with my car!”

“You broke me out with this car!” Levi retorts while spinning the wheel hard to make a particularly sharp turn.

“Where are we going!” Levi shouts.

“I don’t know, she told me to call her when you were out!”

“Then get me the phone.” 

Erwin takes the phone from the bag, before handing it to Levi, who continues to ignore car safety as he calls the only number on it.

“Isabel?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've seen the movie, you might have noticed that so far it's pretty much the same. It's going to stay that way for a little bit at least, but soon enough I'll move it more into my own thing, but maybe don't watch the movie if you don't want spoilers.
> 
> Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and Tik Tok all under the same user, if you like Eruri come check out my art!


	3. Chapter 3

“Levi? Oh thank god you’re okay!” Isabel responds through the other side of the phone, clear relief coming through over her panic.

Levi lets out a small breath of equal relief before replying.

“It takes more than that to kill me. Now where are you?” 

“Right sorry! Outside the bus station, the one near Trost.”

Beside him, Erwin grabs Levi’s shoulder, so much for respectful driving and not distracting the driver, and yells, “Where’s my son!” 

Levi swats off Erwin before turning his attention back to the phone.

“The flash drive. You have it?”

“Yes! It was in your bag. I have it with everything else.”

Levi sighs before replying. “Good, good. Okay hide it somewhere else, on your person if you can, don’t just leave it in the bag.”

“Already done!”

“Levi!” Erwin says, his name leaving his lips for the first time.

He nods at Erwin, before asking, “The kid, is he alright?”

“Yeah, yeah he’s with me. I- Shit Levi I messed up I was just trying to get you out but-”

“No it’s fine, just. Put him on the phone.”

Levi knows the kid’s fine, Issy wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone a person, maybe even if it was them or her, but Erwin doesn’t know that, so he hands him the phone.

“Armin? Oh thank god! Did they hurt you? Are you okay!” Erwin frantically asks next to him.

Levi can only partly make out the response on the other side, but it’s clear the kid’s scared, even if he sounds grateful to hear his father.

“I’m coming to get you okay, don’t worry, I love you!” Erwin says into the phone, and because Levi can’t afford to feel guilty in the middle of all this, he grabs the phone.

“That’s enough for now.” He says far colder than he feels, a flare of guilt shooting through him at Erwin’s expression, before turning his attention to the phone, that’s now been passed back to Isabel on the other side.

“I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes, tops, just hold on until then.” He says before hanging up.

He can feel Erwin’s anger boiling just below the surface in the seat next to him, and the only reason he doesn’t try to make some form of small talk is because he’s always been crap at it, and he doesn’t know what to say to console the man.

“Do you have a change of clothes?” He asks instead?

“What?”

“We’re running from the law. Do you have a change of clothes?”

“Oh! And no, all I have is a jacket in the backseat, I wasn’t exactly planning to run from the law when I left for work this morning.” Erwin replies, looking somewhat surprised, and then annoyed.

“Put that on then.”

As the blond reaches around for his jacket, Levi, after one last look over his shoulder to insure they did in fact lose the cops, pulls into a familiar parking lot.

As he parks the car Erwin turns to him with a question on his face.

“What’re you doing?”

“Getting some clothes that actually close at the back, I won’t be long, you stay here.”

“I don’t think so.” Erwin says, grabbing his arm before he can open the car door, not flinching as Levi meets his eyes. “You kidnapped my son, and you think I’m just going to stay in the car while you go who knows where without proof I’ll get him back? No, you’re stuck with me now.”

Levi opens his mouth to protest, but changes his mind as he really doesn’t have anything to say to that.

“Fine, just stay close to me.” And with one small glance over his shoulder before stepping out of the car, he adds, “And you’ll get your son back, I promise.” 

After that, Levi steps out of the car and starts walking, not waiting to see what kind of response Erwin gives.

He walks over to a group of people, who after noticing him, and the beat up state he’s in, meet him with surprised and confused faces.

Before they have a chance to ask anything however, Levi poses his own question.

“Where’s Kenny?” 

“In the back, you know where he usually hangs out.” A blond woman, around the same age as Kenny, says, nodding her head in the general direction, and leaving a questioning glance at Erwin, and his badly concealed gun.

Levi sighs before replying, “Thanks, and he’s with me.” 

As expected, that shuts them up about his blond shadow, however it has the opposite effect on said shadow.

“I’m not with you, I’m only here until I get my son back.” 

“I know that. But you’re hiding that gun so badly they can all see, so unless you want to get jumped for being an outsider, just go with it.”

Erwin actually looks surprised as he looks at where he’s badly hiding the gun in his pocket, before mumbling something while at least trying to hide it better and following Levi.

“Tch.” 

They walk around the back, with Levi leading until they find an older man, with a rimmed hat casting a shadow over his sharp face.

“Yo Levi!” Kenny calls, sitting up from his chair.

Levi meets him with an unimpressed expression, as usual.

“Aw no hug for your uncle? Who’s that with you anyway? Your boyfriend?” He replies, a sing song voice carrying the last question.

Levi sighs, already regretting not tying Erwin to the car.

“That I’m not going alone with.” Erwin says, crossing his arms over his chest.

Levi quirks an eyebrow and turns to face the taller man.

“No? Don’t like the look of your boyfriend?”

“That is so far from the point. You kidnapped my son!” Erwin replies, actually managing to make that sound angry and not ridiculous.

And huh, he didn’t say he didn’t like what he saw.

Choosing to file that observation for later against any of his better judgment, Levi turns back around to Kenny, who’s not even trying to hide the shit eating grin he’s sporting. 

Figures he wouldn’t question the kidnapping aspect.

“I need a change of clothes, you got anything?” 

“Sure, all my stuffs too long on you though, you sure you hit puberty properly?” 

“Shut up.” Levi replies, adding a rude hand gesture for good measure.

Kenny just laughs as he turns around, and gestures for them to follow.

After getting a change of clothes, dark jeans, white shirt and a long almost black coat for him, and lighter jeans, and another plain white shirt that actually looks too small for Erwin, they briefly say goodbye to Kenny, who throws Levi a set of car keys.

“Wait why do you need keys?” Erwin asks, taking a few quick steps to catch up to Levi.

“For a car, why else?” 

“We have a car.” 

Levi stops, startling Erwin into almost walking into him, before turning to face the taller man.

“No, you have a car. Go home, I don’t know how messy this will get. Just leave, and stay home until I can bring your kid back to you.” 

With that Levi briskly turns around to leave, ignoring Erwin’s words of protest as he walks faster.

Then it’s Levi’s turn to stop dead in his tracks as he hears a bullet land not far to his left.

“Shit.” 

He turns around, to see Erwin holding the gun he gave him, barrel aimed straight at him.

One look at Erwin’s posture however, tells him exactly how in danger he really is.

“Have a lot of experience firing a gun?” Levi says as he starts walking towards Erwin, looking him dead in the eyes.

“Maybe.” He replies, voice steady even as his shaky hands betray him.

To his credit, he keeps the gun level, his height making it line up with Levi’s forehead as he stands close enough to feel the metal.

“You’re shaking.” 

“You should be worried about that, standing in the line of fire after taking my son.” Levi’s honestly impressed to find Erwin’s voice still sounds steady, confident even.

“Pull the trigger then if you’re so angry.”

He sees something he can’t quite make out pass over Erwin’s eyes, before the tension is broken as he lets out a curse as he lowers the gun.

“I’m still not leaving.” Erwin says. This time real confidence making his voice sound like steel, determination written all over his body.

Levi thinks for just a moment, before turning around.

“Fine, just make sure to put the safety back on that gun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually keeping to the schedule I set, who'd have guessed?
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter and Tik Tok all under the same user, if you like Eruri come check out my art! And feel free to send an ask about anything on my tumblr.


End file.
